However, investors in cryptocurrencies are receiving some much-needed assistance this week from an unusual source: JPMorgan Chase. After its recent decline, the investment bank’s strategists, under the direction of Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, said in a report published on Wednesday that they think Bitcoin, the top digital asset in the world, has “considerable upside potential.”
The analysts have not changed their price goal for Bitcoin, which is still set at $38,000. This implies a possible increase of 29 percent in comparison to the cryptocurrency’s trading level on Wednesday morning, which was $29,430.
“The cryptocurrency market slump over the last month appears more like surrender compared to last January and February,” the analysts said. “Going ahead, we anticipate upside potential for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency markets more broadly.”
As a result of the rise in mortgage rates, JPMorgan has shifted its focus away from real estate and toward other asset classes that it considers to be “preferred.” These include digital assets and hedge funds. Despite this, the investment bank’s strategists lowered their overall assessment of alternative investments, moving them from “overweight” to “underweight,” noting ongoing difficulties in the macroeconomic environment.
Since the beginning of 2018, when it provided its wealth management customers with access to six cryptocurrency funds, including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, JPMorgan has made significant progress in increasing its involvement in the cryptocurrency market. Additionally, the bank said in February that it would be making a “strategic investment” in TRM Labs, a company that specializes in blockchain research.
The investment was made despite the fact that CEO Jamie Dimon has a lengthy history of being a skeptic of bitcoin. In October of 2017, Dimon said that Bitcoin was “worthless” and claimed that it was a “fraud” at the time. Bitcoin was the dominant cryptocurrency at the time.
Despite this, Dimon pointed out that his customers are “adults” who are capable of making their own choices. At a meeting hosted by the Institute of International Finance in October, he made the following statement: “So if they want to have access to acquire Bitcoin, we can’t custody it. However, we can provide them genuine access that is as clean as possible.”
In the following months, Dimon’s tone regarding cryptocurrencies has remained negative; however, in May, he praised blockchain technology at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Summit, saying that it has proven itself to be a useful innovation. He stated that blockchain technology has “proven itself to be a useful innovation.” On Wednesday, the strategists at JPMorgan also took a more optimistic stance, claiming that despite the recent sell-off in cryptocurrency, there has been no evidence to suggest that venture capital (VC) financing in the market is decreasing. These analysts made their statements.
Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital company, said on Wednesday that it had raised $4.5 billion for its fourth cryptocurrency fund with the hopes of taking advantage of bargains in the crypto bear market. This is relevant to their claim since it was also disclosed on Wednesday.